India and Pakistan another round of talks on water issues: World Bank

Vastavam web: India and Pakistan will hold another round of talks here next month on water issues, said the World Bank, which also issued a fact sheet giving its stated position on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) under which India is allowed to construct hydroelectric facilities on the shared Indo-Pak rivers. The World Bank’s statement came after India and Pakistan concluded the secretary-level talks over the 1960 IWT this week, with the global lender maintaining that it was held in a spirit of “goodwill and cooperation”. “The parties have agreed to continue discussions and reconvene in September in Washington, DC,” the World Bank said in a brief statement issued at the conclusion of the talks.

Noting that the two countries disagree over whether the technical design features of the two hydroelectric plants contravene the treaty, the World Bank said the IWT designates these two rivers as well as the Indus as the “Western Rivers” to which Pakistan has unrestricted use.”Among other uses, India is permitted to construct hydroelectric power facilities on these rivers subject to constraints specified in annexures to the treaty,” the Bank said in its fact sheet.

In the lengthy fact sheet, the World Bank said Pakistan asked it to facilitate the setting up of a Court of Arbitration to look into its concerns about the designs of the two hydroelectric power projects.

The IWT was signed in 1960 after nine years of negotiations between India and Pakistan with the help of the World Bank, which is also a signatory. The World Bank’s role in relation to “differences” and “disputes” is limited to the designation of people to fulfil certain roles when requested by either or both of the parties, the fact sheet said. Pakistan had approached the World Bank last year, raising concerns over the designs of two hydroelectricity projects located in Jammu and Kashmir.

It had demanded that the World Bank, which is the mediator between the two countries under the 57-year-old water distribution pact, set up a court of arbitration to look into its concerns. The simultaneous processes, however, were halted after India objected to it. After that, representatives of the World Bank held talks with India and Pakistan to find a way out separately